Time’s up for the Yes2Rail blog, which I launched on June 30, 2008 as a paid consultant on Honolulu's elevated rail project. Yes2Rail’s August 13, 2012 post was its last following the author's move to Sacramento, CA. You’re invited to read four-plus years of information-packed entries, many of which are linked at our “aggregation site.” Look for the paragraph with red copy in the right-hand column, below. Mahalo for all the positive comments Yes2Rail received since its start.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Are Any Oahu Residents Still ‘Undecided’ on Rail? If You’re Not Sure What To Think about This Technology only 5 Days before the Primary, Maybe Weighing Values Like ‘Truth’ and ‘Honesty’ Will Help You Make Up Your Mind

Citizens still unsure of how
to vote in Saturday’s Primary Election apparently haven’t heard enough to form
an opinion and are still searching for honest answers to their questions.

If that’s you, maybe this
will help:

By the end of Honolulu’s
most important week since Statehood in 1959, the city’s future could be as
bleak and blank asthis page on
the Vote Ben 2012 campaign website.

Nothingfills the white space on a page that’s devoted to “Ben’s Solutions – Real
solutions to our traffic problems – solutions that will benefit everyone and
that we can afford.” An excerpt of the page is shown at right.

This blank page is more than
ironic; it also says something about those who promise “solutions” to Oahu’s
traffic issues. Put bluntly, there is no way to “solve” traffic, and
anyone who promises “real solutions” to traffic is promising the impossible. It also says they’re out of touch

Playing Straight with the
Facts

Promising Real Solutions to
traffic congestion has a superficial appeal to it, but consider this handful of
facts:

• Traffic congestion grows
as the population grows.

• Oahu’s population will
continue to grow by another 150,000 to 200,000 by 2030.

• There’s no legal way to
prevent migration to Hawaii or (God forbid) prevent couples from having
children.

• The number of vehicles
will grow as the population increases.

• There’s insufficient space
on Oahu to build more highways and no apparent support among the public to do
so.

• Traffic isn’t solved by
adding lanes, which studies show are filled with vehicles as soon as drivers
perceive an advantage to driving on them.

It’s surprising to see the
“solution” word being used at this late date. Twenty years ago, a group called
Honolulu Taxpayers for Traffic Solutions was formed to support Mayor Fasi’s
elevated rail plan but was ridiculed on this very same point – for suggesting
traffic can be solved.

The premise it can be solved is the foundation of anti-railer-in-chief
Cliff Slater’s entire movement, which has managed to sweep up the anti-rail mayoral
candidate and others who’ve bought his “solutions” line.

“Our mission: Offering
cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu.The problem with the solutions offered by elected
officials is that they are all based on motorists reducing their use of the
automobile and using public transportation instead. This is wishful thinking.
Elected officials cannot point to any city that has ‘invested’ in any form of
public transportation, heavy rail, light rail or bus/rapid transit and
increased the use of public transportation as a whole even though billions of
dollar (sic) have been spent trying. Accordingly our mission is to work to find
what can be implemented to reduce congestion that has worked elsewhere.”

What an amazing page this is
in revealing both Mr. Slater's anti-government philosophy (public transit is bad, cars are
good) and in inventing the suggestion that public transit is a failure for not
increasing its share of daily transportation trips.

It’s a bogus notion,
since the major thrust of infrastructure development in the latter half of the
20th Century was to support expanded use of the private
automobile.Hundreds of billions (trillions?) were spent
toward that end, and what it gave America was infamous urban sprawl.

Not to be missed is Mr.
Slater’s inclusion of “bus/rapid transit” among his list of failed public
transportation initiatives. But that was before an anti-rail mayoral candidate
began promoting BRT as a “solution” to traffic congestion, so it’s convenient
for him to support BRT now even though he’s on record as calling BRT a failure.

Understandable Blankness

It’s not surprising after
all that the candidate’s “Real Solutions” page has nothing on it, because a lot
of nothing backs up Mr. Slater’s credentials to be Mr. Cayetano’s brain trust
on transportation.

“There is no question
that Cliff Slater is a successful businessman, and although not formally
educated, an extremely intelligent person. However, there is also ample
evidence that he has no special expertise in traffic or transportation other
that that which he has bestowed upon himself and that he has seriously
misrepresented himself.”

Honesty and truthfulness are
the overlooked key issues in the rail debate. You can find them in abundance at
the rail project's website. The contrast with the “Real Solutions” page
couldn’t be greater.

Cliff Slater's real mission statement..............“Our mission: Offering cost effective ways to reduce traffic congestion on Oahu. The problem with the solutions offered by me is that they are all based on building more freeways which increases the use of the automobile instead of building public transportation. This is wishful thinking on my part. Libertarians, Oil Billionaires, Automobile Manufacturers, Freeway Contractors and the Gang of Four cannot point to any city that has ‘invested’ in freeways which didn't eventually get clogged with cars even though billions of dollar (sic) have been spent trying. This is the voyage of the gang of four. Our five year mission: to explore 1950's technology, to seek out strange new slogans without doing anything new, and to boldly go where man has gone before.

I figure that Slater is (for now) backing BRT because it is to him the lesser of the public transit evils and if it fails to cut down on traffic he can later say, "I told you so!" But Honolulu will have no traffic solution then. Perhaps his English background will leave him to divide people into haves and have-nots, like those would use his HOT lanes scheme haves (those who can afford the toll) and have-nots (those who can't afford the toll).

This Isn't Political

Yes2Rail is a blog about the Honolulu rail transit project, which has become the key issue in this year’s mayoral race. We comment on the candidates’ plans to address Oahu’s growing congestion problem and whether those plans could meet the need as well as elevated rail can and will. That’s not the same as criticizing the candidates, and we urge our readers to recognize the difference.

Another red-light runner meets Denver at-grade train, 6.13.12

Honolulu rail will be elevated, with zero possibility for accidents like those shown in this column in cities with at-grade systems. Visit our "aggregation site" for much more on why elevated rail is the only reasonable way to build Honolulu rail.

What riding the train will avoid

Bus Accident Aftermath on H-1

'Black Tuesday'--9/5/06 Crash Produced Nightmare Commute

Typical H-1 Traffic

About Me

After five years of active-duty service as an Army officer with duty stations in West Berlin and South Vietnam, reported and edited for newspapers and broadcast stations (including all-news radio) in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. Covered Honolulu city government for the Honolulu Advertiser and KGMB-TV. Served on Congressman Cec Heftel's staff in Honolulu and Washington, then managed corporate communications and was Hawaiian Electric Company's spokesman for nearly a decade. A communications consultant for 19 years before moving to California in 2012. Launched, produced and hosted Hawaii Public Radio's "live" weekly "Energy Futures" public affairs program in 2009-10. Authored books on The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ("Punchbowl" 1982) and on the decline of standard grammar in business and society ("Me and Him Are Killing English!" 2007). Now an information officer with the California Department of Water Resources.